Wednesday, 29 May 2013

For the sake of those who assert that every word of the Bible is the literal word of God:

"I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your fortunes along with theirs." Ezekiel 16:56 (NRSV)

"Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered?" Ezekiel 16:56 (NRSV)

These passages come well after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and indicate that God will restore their fortunes.

You don't hear fundamentalist Christians who are anti-gay quoting these passages of the Bible.

Gay is for them a byword as Sodom was for Israel.

So don't take the literal passages that fundamentalists quote too seriously - they are selective - this passage and the passages about David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel indicate that God's attitude towards homosexuality is not as severe as they suggest.

And these are passages from the Bible.

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.]

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

If we accept that life is a process of learning.
That we progress from darkness to light.

Then perhaps the afterlife; rather than being a place of reward or punishment for what we have done in life, or a place where punishment is paid off; is a place where we continue to learn and progress towards enlightenment.

Mediums who contact the dead would suggest that this is the case.
People that have passed over are with their loved ones who are helping them.

I would suggest that this indicates a continued process of learning.

So, rather than fearing judgment or punishment after death, we should anticipate a continuation of the learning process that we experience in life.

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Modernism is the period in which hope was inspired by scientific progress.

Universal education and universal faith in science led to the idea that science had all the answers to the problems of humanity.

This, combined with economics, made us feel that inevitable progress was leading us to a kind of Utopia.

Post-modernism is the period when this went sour.
The feeling that everything was controlled by impersonal laws and an indifferent nature led to alienation and psychological problems associated with meaninglessness.
Depression and psychosis became widespread and lead to escapism through drugs and alcohol.
Life had become so impersonal that it was unbearable.

We have now entered a dark night of materialism.
We worship success, fame, celebrity, and wealth.
Economics rules.
Men and women are expendable units in profit making machines.
Life has been reduced to working and shopping.

But the answer is not to be found in these things.
Happiness will only be found in people.
And then only in Love.

Love is the answer to our human problems.
Not science, not economics, not success or personal achievement.....

How long will it take humanity to learn this truth.
Or will we go off on another tangent?